I’ve always been fascinated by the Home Front, the enlistment of every man, woman and child in the British Isles in an effort to beat Hitler through food rationing, making do and mending, salvage, growing your own and basically making the most of scarce resources with...

When my box of goodies arrived from Indigo Herbs last week, I knew what I wanted to make with them – a fruity tea loaf for Ryan. Ryan loves dried fruit, me not so much (although I am learning!), and he polished off my last tea loaf really quickly. I wanted to know...

Every month this year I’ve been trying to read one of the unread books on my shelf, and to then decide whether it gets to keep its spot or needs to be set free to find a new home. For June I chose Nature’s Wild Harvest by Eric Soothill and Michael J. Thomas. It was...

And so we come to the last Tendrils of July, a rich smörgasbord of tantilising plant-related material. My science-writing alter ego works with Diamond Light Source, the UK’s national synchrotron facility. Diamond accelerates electrons to near light speeds, producing a...

I’ve talked about hemp before on this blog, and about how it’s crazy that its cultivation is basically prohibited (you can grow it commercially, if you have a licence from the Home Office, and a buyer lined up) because some varieties of it are grown for their...

I haven’t been able to spend as much time outside as I would have liked this month. The weather has either been far too hot, or very wet, and I have been pretty busy inside. On Saturday morning I took advantage of a couple of cool and dry hours to become reacquainted...